Starmer personally overrode value-for-money rules to authorise record £500,000 payout to the cabinet secretary he dismissed

Chris Wormald received roughly £500,000 after Keir Starmer forced him out as cabinet secretary after 14 months. Cabinet Office permanent secretary Cat Little could not certify value for money, requiring Starmer to issue a ministerial direction — overriding Treasury rules to approve a sum exceeding Wormald's contractual entitlement. The PM who dismissed him thus authorised the payout himself.